By Stephen Kalin
Iranian strikes on liquefied natural gas facilities at Qatar's Ras Laffan Industrial City reduced the country's export capacity by 17% and will take three to five years to repair, the country's energy minister said.
The attacks damaged two liquefied natural gas producing trains that are both joint ventures with ExxonMobil and will cost about $20 billion a year in lost revenue, said Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, who is also chief executive of QatarEnergy.
The company will be compelled to declare force majeure for up to five years on some long-term liquefied natural gas contracts, impacting China, South Korea, Italy and Belgium, he said.
Damage to one of two trains at the Pearl GTL plant, a gas-to-liquids facility operated by Shell, is being assessed and expected to be offline for at least a year, he said. The outage affects the production of several associated products, including a 14% reduction in Qatar's exports of helium, which is critical to the production of semiconductors.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2026 17:04 ET (21:04 GMT)
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